Father of Stone
by FRC Coazze
Summary: Someone has always watched over Severus. Someone who has long awaited his smile.


_New short one-shot written (in Italian) for the Creative Game n°13 "Un anno di sorrisi per Severus" (A year of smiles for Severus) of the Italian forum "Il Calderone di Severus"._

_Hope you enjoy ^^_

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**Father of Stone**

I've seen you growing up, you know?

Every moment of your journey I kept my eye on you. I watched over you. Over you, as over each one of my children. No one is forgotten, no one is left aside by me.

I've seen many kids grow up. In silence I let their way and their choices to express themselves in front of their feet like new poems, autumn leaves falling from high branches. I have seen many autumns. So many that even if you think to understand my old age you would be subjugated, unable to pierce with your young eyes the grey centuries which I lived.

My eyes have seen so much. My ears have heard many stories. Stories of boys, you see. Like you. Not different from you. No one is different, because you are all different. Your stories are the countless pearls of a necklace... countless pages of a book of stone which I, with attentive and discreet love, write. Page after page. Each chapter a name. Each story a man. Memories stored in the memory of an immemorial sage. Many plots, so much pain... but also so much joy, so much everyday simplicity, and the emotions of men and women who live.

I've seen many kids growing up.

Growth is a mystery that I never was able to explore, for I am born as I am, for I am the one who old age has surprised imperishable and unalterable. In me, only stories grow. But it is you who create them, those stories. I am but a humble scribe who writes and writes and records everything, but without you my pages would be empty. Your growth has been a long road, a long story.

I have heard many stories. I have seen many things... but you, my dear boy, you have taken away my interest annihilating with your lonely, sad eyes, the stories of many around you. There are men like that. Men who, in their constant hiding, ignore what eyes are watching them. And you, Severus, you have attracted mine.

I am old, you see. An imperishable bulwark. You... you are a hidden light. A young flame stirring in the darkness. And I, I have seen you growing up. I followed your steps, tasted your talents, I heard your lonely cry. I felt the cold that had fallen around you - not out of pain, not out of hatred, but out of fear - and never like such times I would not wished to protect you. More than I already did. More than I protected others. Because, you see Severus, you needed me.

An abandoned boy.

I am the house for all of you.

No bias lies within my walls, nor you will find differences in my courtyard. I am the house. I am the home of each and every one of you, especially and particularly for those who do not have one. For those who are lost. For those who are alone. For those in need of help. And you, my little son, you were in the greatest need.

You did not have anything, when you first crossed my threshold.

Nothing.

You did not have a family.

You did not have a home.

You did not have a smile.

I accepted you among my children. Clear and confident that you would have found here what you needed... sure that here, in this great family of mine, you would have found that smile that should never miss on a child's face. I was so sure...

Never. I never wanted to be a source of pain for you. I never wanted that here too, here in these arms of mine, you would be forsaken. I never wanted to hear some words... I never wanted to feel the pain of a child to crack my stones and soak my pages with tears.

I wished your smile.

Never, in those long years in these classrooms where you learnt the secrets of the magic that you loved so much, I saw you smile. Never a happy smile, light-hearted or honest ... I saw your lips curl up in a grimace, or in a sad, sarcastic smiles. No, it was not sarcasm I was looking for, it was not the lie: it was the sincerity. And searching for your smile I saw a truth which was darker and colder than a lie. I wanted to be a father to all of you. I did wish to be the home of those who are wandering and alone. Instead I saw the darkness within my walls.

You left my halls full of desire and hatred and anger. You ran away from me. You searched for another family, another place where you could feel accepted, but the world beyond the stone is vain and full of illusions. Besides the hard and tangible rock there is just nothingness; everything is a dream, everything is an illusion. But it was not the unchanging stone to bring you back to me. It was the pain. Again. The loneliness.

Once again you crossed my gates. Once again abandoned and alone.

Once again you did not have anything.

Neither a family.

Nor a home.

Nor a smile.

Once again I wished to protect you. I have no suspicion, I have no distrust. All I saw was a lonely boy, abandoned and helpless in front of a dark way prospect of a fate as much terrible. A young man become stone as much, and perhaps more, as these invincible walls. You, Severus, had not found your home and you had built one around you, enclosing yourself between walls impassable to my own eyes. A spirit locked in a body of rock, harder and truer than my high towers. The flame that was had been hidden to her own story. It was no longer growing. Crushed and suffocated by the fortress that was supposed to protect it.

You continued your campaign. Alone.

The very same link that stirs between me and the headmaster of this school was broken. A flash of green and death, before. A rock wall and pain, after.

As I tried to join you, you fled from me. Why? Still, you were afraid, my son? Were you afraid that someone could look inside you and understand? I respect the human dignity and I admire the courage of the son. A son who killed a father and fled home.

You loved Albus. He too has betrayed you, Severus. Is it not? You thought you have finally found someone whom open the door to, and you found out you had let in a thief. A smile that could arise died in a disenchantment. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, because, you see, I have failed you too. I left you on the ground, when a father should bend down and help his child to get up.

A father who has never seen the smile his son's face.

Truly, was I so far away? Not even my magic has been able to find you. That bond between us which has never formed precluded your heart to me. I have not been able to evoke your memory, I could not give you the right credit, but there are laws which even a millennial castle must undergo to. You yourself hid your true identity and presented to me as a stranger and usurper. An empty and distant entity, a stone gargoyle within stone walls and I, I could only watch.

Quiet, I had to stay, and deny you your place among the headmasters of this school and so, once again, though not by my will, I repudiated you. But a boy... another lonely boy, a boy who I saw growing up, a boy not different from you, you see... that boy had been able to do what I could not.

He could give you a smile.

Finally, Severus, I see your smile. A smile that passes the barriers of death and shows itself to my old stones through the canvas of a painting. Because your mission is over now. Because that boy you have watched over, as I have watched over you, put an end to everything. And so, what for someone would have to be a great new adventure, for you has been the beginning of a long and sweet rest. The end of your roaming. Now, you can smile.

You are home now. Are you not, my son?


End file.
